If you’ve ever seen Twenty One Pilots live, then you know that drummer Josh Dun is the strong, silent type. The bashing percussionist for the Columbus, OH duo lets his sticks do the talking, keeping the big beat for the band while singer Tyler Joseph handles vocals, keyboards/piano, ukulele, guitar, bass and anything else he can get his hands on.
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But in the just-released video for the second single from the band’s upcoming Breach (Sept. 12) album, “Drum Show,” Dun veers out of his lane to sing his first vocals on a 21P song. The punchy, punk-edged rager mostly driven by Dun’s bashing beats and Joseph’s rubbery bass and urgent vocals is the follow-up to the album’s first single, “The Contract,” which currently sits at No. 1 on the Alternative Airplay chart and is also nominated for best rock at the upcoming 2025 MTV VMAs.
In the bare bones video for the song directed by longtime collaborator Mark Eshleman and shot in their midwestern hometown, Joseph and Dun perform the song in an abandoned parking garage, their gear plugged into a minivan. At points, Dun is playing his kit from inside the car, driving through the night as Joseph sings from the back seat.
“He’s puttin’ on a drum show/ Even now, even now, even now/ He’ll take the longer way home
Even now, even now, even now/ He’ll never ever say so,” Joseph sings on the chorus. “He drives fast just to feel it, feel it/ He drives slow if his song’s not over/ Drown it out, drown it out.”
About halfway through, Dun steps up to the mic to sing in his previously unheard, affectingly sweet voice, crooning, “I’ve been this way/ I want to change/ I’ve been this way/ I want to change” before Joseph jumps back in with a primal scream of the word “change” amid a cymbal-crashing fury.
The pair recently announced that they will celebrate the follow-up to last year’s Clancy album with a global listening event at indie record stores around the world a week before their eighth LP’s release date. The upcoming LP will pick up on the narrative arc that began with 2015’s Blurryface and continued on 2018’s Trench, 2021’s Scaled and Icy and 2024’s Clancy. 21P will kick off the Clancy Tour: Breach 2025 stadium/amphitheater run on Sept. 18 with a show at Cincinnati’s TQL soccer stadium.
In addition to the new single, the band unveiled three exclusive box sets tied to key characters from the new album’s story: the Dark Clancy edition, Nova Bishop edition and the Torchbearer edition. Each set will feature a hinged book-style box with a CD tray and lift-up door with unique colors and texture that reveals hidden goodies, including a bandana, stickers, a poster, 24-page booklet and a character ID card; click here for more information on the special editions.
Check out the “Drum Show” video below.
